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This paper investigates query processing in MANETs. Cache techniques and multi‐join database operations are studied. For data caching, a group‐caching strategy is proposed. Using the cache and the index of the cached data, queries can be processed at a single node or within the group containing this single node. For multi‐join, a cost evaluation model and a query plan generation algorithm are presented. Query cost is evaluated based on the parameters including the size of the transmitted data, the transmission distance and the query cost at each single node. According to the evaluations, the nodes on which the query should be executed and the join order are determined. Theoretical analysis and experiment results show that the proposed group‐caching based query processing and the cost based join strategy are efficient in MANETs. It is suitable for the mobility, the disconnection and the multi‐hop features of MANETs. The communication cost between nodes is reduced and the efficiency of the query is improved greatly.

This chapter analyzes the impact of intercultural academic experiences on students in the areas of intercultural sensitivity and multicultural awareness, knowledge, and skills.

Cottey College’s mission statement includes a clause about educating students to be useful members of a global society (Mission, n.d., para. 1). Toward achieving the mission, each of Cottey College’s second year students is offered an international experience over spring break that is largely paid for by endowed funds. For spring break 2015, the author of this chapter and a colleague offered a trip to Thailand. To participate, students were required to take part in a Step into the World!: Thailand course that was intended to prepare them to successfully navigate, and later reflect upon, their experience abroad. The trip portion of the course spanned 10 days. To measure what impacts the course may have had, students were asked to complete a pre-course and post-course survey, the Intercultural Sensitivity Scale (Fritz, Möllenberg, & Chen, 2002), and to complete journal entries and a personal impact statement by which their multicultural awareness, knowledge, and skills were assessed.

Analysis of the results suggests the Step into the World!: Thailand course had a positive impact on the majority of students’ intercultural sensitivity and multicultural awareness, knowledge, and skills.

The findings support the importance of intentionally combining inside and outside of the classroom experiences to enhance student outcomes.

The purpose of this paper is to achieve a better understanding of the current phenomenon regarding challenges of and potential for increased international recruitment and enhancement of the teaching and learning experience in Thai HE. The focus on what made these people choose Thailand, and their actual perceptions and experiences in Thai universities, are two main foci of this paper.

A qualitative approach through narrative interviews was selected as the researchers did not want to constrain this study with preconceived notions that might unduly steer the findings. During the interviews, detailed notes were taken, and the conversations were taped recorded, and then transcribed and analysed. The analytic approach adopted was a thematic analysis. NVivo qualitative data analysis software (QSR International Pty Ltd Version 11, 2017) was used to help organise and analyse the data.

The findings show that availability of scholarships, word-of-mouth referrals, and geographical and cultural proximity to a home country appear to be important pull factors. A series of interviews with international students from many different cultures, from both developed and developing countries, yielded some surprising insights including strong research support in some disciplines and the fact that academic life is personalised in Thai universities.

The findings from this study suggested that engaging returnees as ambassadors, creating links between international student community and home student community before, during and after the education abroad experience could potentially help Thai HE to be more marketable at a global scale. International students have potentials to be future contacts for inducing the flow of international students evident by the social network or word-of-mouth referrals as one of the prominent pull factors.

The findings from this paper provide advice and guidance on how values-based, rather than purely numbers-driven strategies can help Thai HEIs across the country to be more attractive to students and to enhance their experience once they come to study in Thai HEIs.

This study will make an important critique of current theories of academic mobility that primarily focus on developed countries. Current literature in international education favours native English language countries and overlooks experiences of international students in developing countries. This study will contribute to the existing literature which is lacking in reported perceptions and experiences of international students in Asian countries, particularly the new emerging educational hub in Southeast Asia like Thailand. The paper includes experiences of students from developed countries such as Canada, France, Germany, the UK and the USA, filling in the gap in the current literature that dominantly reports experiences of Asian students in the developed English-speaking countries. Additionally, this study also reports the experiences of international students from the countries that are lesser known in the context of international education, including Cambodia, Egypt, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, Pakistan, South Africa, Sudan and Uganda.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the health and well-being of Thai immigrant women in transnational marriages.

Interviews with 13 Thai women living in Norway who have (had) a Norwegian spouse/partner were conducted and the transcripts were analysed using thematic analysis.

Initial culture shock and a mixture of employment issues, transnational ties, marital relationships and social networks intertwined to influence women’s health and well-being over time. Sending financial remittances to family in Thailand could be challenging due to struggles to obtain suitable employment, working in low-paid physical jobs and spouses’ lack of understanding of this cultural practice. Over time, these intertwined factors led to chronic stress and deteriorating health for some. Thai networks and friendships were important for emotional and practical support.

More organised assistance may be beneficial to facilitate integration, reduce social isolation and improve employment opportunities.

Research on Thai women has so far focused on their position as immigrant wives and the vulnerabilities to exploitation and abuse they face. Focusing on only discourses around marital relationships may be limiting when trying to understand factors that influence the health and well-being of Thai immigrant women.

In Thailand, the number of higher education institutions (HEIs) offering international programmes has surged dramatically. Internationalisation is seen as key to competing in the higher education market, modernising educational programming, and generating new streams of revenue. Yet, such rapid change is disorientating for the internationalisation of higher education (IHE) in the Thai context. That said, there is little disagreement on what it is not; it is not Thai. This chapter investigates apparent efforts to ‘de-place’ Thailand from IHE and considers how these attempts may connect to (post-)colonial tensions between sovereignty and civilisation. Through a synthesis of scholarship in the areas of higher education, cultural geography and Thai studies, the authors construct a framework for exploring how IHE is both imagined and experienced in Thailand. In particular, they re-examine datasets from studies they conducted with stakeholders over recent years, including executive leadership, international faculty members, and university students. Through a series of narrative portraits, a dialogue of voices is constructed that reflect distinct orientations to ‘Thainess’ in the IHE. The authors argue that a wider and more inclusive orientation to internationalisation is not only respectful of local identity but is enhanced by it. Ultimately, the hope of this study is to offer a vision of what an ‘emplaced’ idea of IHE in Thailand might look like, one grounded in an orientation unique to a particular place with its own cultural and social coordinates.

This article reviews the practice of horenso (a mnemonic for hokoku/reporting, renraku/informing and sodan/consulting) – an under-documented Japanese communication methodology – at a Japanese-owned subsidiary in Thailand. It draws on a number of cultural theories to explore how horenso was influenced by the non-biculturality of individuals at a multinational corporation.

This article draws on first-hand interviews with staff of varying responsibilities at a multinational electronic components manufacturer, Spin-eTech (a pseudonym) to understand how horenso has been utilized and perceived at this Japanese-owned subsidiary in Thailand differently from its original form and traditional use at its headquarters in Japan. This was a targeted case that captured the real time communication difficulties at the workplace.

The themes of horenso's rationale, motivation, style of communication, use for problem solving, information reporting, relation to superiority and culture of communication emerged as prominent differences for how horenso was practiced at the Thai subsidiary.

Using the emic perspective of cultural understanding, insights are offered into the impact of non-biculturality within the Asia Pacific region on the practice of horenso to extant knowledge on the under-explored “eastern vs eastern” cultural differences.

Hundreds of thousands of Shan people from Myanmar have crossed the Thai border seeking employment or refuge from war, with numbers increasing following the 2021 coup in Myanmar. Still, little is known about their post-migration experiences. This study explored the ways relocating to Thailand influenced the lives and mental wellbeing of Shan men, the factors affecting their engagement with Thai society and their responses to opportunities and challenges.

Given the lack of published research on this topic, this study used a qualitative approach. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 14 purposively selected Shan men in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Data were examined using qualitative thematic analysis.

Five themes emerged: the strength of both push and pull factors; the importance of ethnicity, community and acting transnationally; experiencing discrimination and feeling “low”; coping by forgetting problems, hiding from trouble and studying; and wanting to return when conditions allow. The findings reveal how moving to Thailand can improve but also undermine the mental wellbeing of Shan men. Results also highlight the influence of ethnic identity, community and post-migration opportunities and stressors on how these men adapt to life in Thailand and on their attitudes towards return migration. Respondents used a mix of emotion- and problem-focused coping strategies.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is one of the first to explore post-migration experiences and mental wellbeing among the Shan in Thailand.

In this chapter, we explore our academic mobility journeys – with particular consideration of the role of gender, class and sexual identity. The chapter takes shape as a dialogue, where together, we discuss the challenges and opportunities we encountered, the strategies we enacted and the successes we have had as scholars on the move. By having a conversation with an-Other about our mobile subjectivities, we hope to offer points of reflection for other international academics as they contemplate or negotiate their own movements.